‘Tehran’ Co-Producer Paper Entertainment Secures Backing From Channel 4

Hi! And welcome to International Insider. I’m Jake Kanter, here to guide you through a lorry load of news from the international film and television sector. My inbox is at your mercy if you have news or views — message me on [email protected]. And to get this delivered every Friday, sign up here.

EXCLUSIVE: Tortoise Media, the “slow news” brand set up by a group including former Director of BBC News and Times of London editor James Harding, has signed with CAA.

EXCLUSIVE: Disney+ is close to unveiling its next UK scripted series, which hails from The Salisbury Poisonings producer Dancing Ledge Productions and Emily In Paris outfit Jax Media.

Coming off her Oscar-nominated role in Hillbilly Elegy, Glenn Close has joined Tehran as a lead in Season 2 of Apple TV+’s international espionage thriller series.

Kate Horton, who previously ran the Royal Court Theatre in London and has held executive roles also at the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre, will take over for Scott Rudin as executive producer of The Music Man, the upcoming Broadway revival starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster.

Nicolas Cage has been set to star in Butcher’s Crossing, an adventure adapted from John Williams’ seminal 1960 novel about the rugged frontier of the American West. Gabe Polsky (Red Army, Red Penguins) is set to direct. Altitude Film Group, which is producing and financing, has landed UK and Irish distribution rights and also will handle selling international at the Cannes Virtual Market that kicked off today. Shooting is set to begin in October in the U.S.

EXCLUSIVE: Parkland Entertainment has swooped on UK and Ireland rights to The Champion Of Auschwitz, Maciej Barczzewski’s drama about a boxer who fought for survival inside a Nazi death camp during the Second World War.

Red Planet Pictures, the UK drama producer behind BBC/PBS series Death In Paradise, has sold a majority stake to Asacha Media Group, the emerging Paris-based production group founded by three former Endemol Shine and Zodiak executives. Financial details were not disclosed.

EXCLUSIVE: Mumbai-based filmmakers Gauri Shinde and R. Balki, the co-founders of Hope Productions, have brought UK-based distribution executive Pranab Kapadia onboard to co-produce two of their upcoming features.

Podcast consolidation continues.

ITV Studios has backed entertainment producer Rollercoaster Television, which has been established by two producers from Banijay-owned Remarkable.

EXCLUSIVE: A controversial shooting in Belize by the daughter-in-law of British Conservative donor Lord Michael Ashcroft is to be the subject of an interesting new project from Will Gluck and Campside Media, the company behind the hot Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen podcast.

Hello! magazine, the pair said their son had been named after the suffragette Emily Wilding Davison. Camilla, 32, said: 'She was strong and courageous, and she thought about others above herself, and those are all qualities that we would want Wilding to have.

After commemorating the late Prince Philip's 100th birthday this week, Queen Elizabeth has reunited with her royal family members for the first time since her beloved husband's funeral on April 17 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

EXCLUSIVE: London-based Gaumont UK is bolstering its local team with the appointment of Wall To Wall’s Executive Producer For Drama Myar Craig-Brown as Creative Director.